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Former Arsenal defender Gabriel believes he was treated unfairly during his time at the club by Arsene Wenger.

The Brazil international made 64 appearances after joining the Gunners in January 2015, but injuries and stiff competition for places meant he was unable to cement a regular starting place in Wenger’s strongest XI.

The emergence of Rob Holding towards the end of last season, coupled with another injury setback, saw him miss out on a place in Arsenal’s FA Cup final team having played a prominent role in the semi final win over Manchester City.

Gabriel was sold to Valencia in the summer and has played a major part in Los Che’s remarkable improvement this term. Despite the upturn in his own personal fortunes, the 26-year-old feels he should have been given more chances to impress during his time in north London.

Injury robbed Gabriel of place in Arsenal’s FA Cup winning XI last season (Picture: Getty)

The writing was on the wall for Gabriel when Arsenal signed Shkodran Mustafi from Valencia (Picture: Getty)

‘I deserved more of an opportunity,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘Sometimes I played because my team-mates were injured. I did play and sometimes even after playing well, I’d go home sad, given that I was only playing because my team-mate was injured. I don’t think I deserved that.

‘I think I had the ability to play and to start games because I deserved to do so, or because I did well in training, but that didn’t happen.

‘Sometimes I’d play three or four games and if Arsenal lost, I’d be dropped and everyone on the outside would say, “It’s Gabriel’s fault.

‘That wasn’t good for me. People thought, ‘When that guy plays, Arsenal always lose.’ When [Hector] Bellerin got injured, I played at right-back and Arsenal started to lose.

‘I think I played in four or five games en route to the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City and I played brilliantly in that game. I played really well and I received plenty of praise. Then I think we faced Tottenham away and lost, I gave away a penalty in that game and lost my place in the team. I didn’t play again.

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‘I played in the last Premier League game because everyone was injured, all the centre-backs were out…I was quite down about how it went because of these reasons and it didn’t sit well with me.’